I had promised myself not to enter this discussion, but since I wanted
to tell about my experiences of East German coaches (Edwin Tepper was
mentioned) I sent a few words.
OK - my point is rather simple. Here are a few points:
*The East Germans did dope their athletes at a scientific level. Not
extremely high levels, I have spoken to some athletes who did the same
in the US in the 1970's and 80's, and they were surprised at the low
levels mentioned and proven in Berendonk's book. Remember that the GDR
was very careful not to send any athletes who could test positive to the
Championships.
*They had extremely good resources to work with. The indoor arenas were
not top modern, but their total sum of coaches, talent search, school,
work, backing staff and - not least - social motivation produced an
awesome result.
*Their coaches were extremeley good, with long studies at university
level, and a system where the best could rise to the top levels. The
system had it's flaws. It was rather conservative. They were late to
adapt to new techniques. A few examples - High Jump, where Rosemarie
Ackermann was the first ever 2.00 jumper and Rolf Beilschmidt cleared
2.31 (both in 1977) with the straddle. Or Shot Put - where the GDR
failed to produce one single rotational putter, except the highly
controversial Rolf Oesterreicher (who never competed internationally and
who is worth a post for himself). But they did some experiments. The
most absurd was when a composer was hired. He was to meet especially the
throwers, analyze their individual rhythms and then compose and record
warm up and relaxation music accordingly. (The coaches were,
justifiably, sceptical and felt that the money could be better spent.
But I guess that they had to keep also the composers and musicians
employed).
I have met a few of the former GDR coaches in my role as interpreter and
coach. I cannot say anything about what they did at home, (at least
before 1991), but people like Dr. Bernd Schubert (former GDR head
coach), Edwin Tepper (women's sprints) and Klaus Schlappner (Shot Put
and coach of among others Kathrin Neimke) are both superb coaches and
nice people to meet. (B t w - one other coach, who I will not name, once
told me: "Honestly, I never doped any athletes. That was done by the
medicine department. I only had to hand in my training programmes and
they took over from there".)
*The social factor was important. For a GDR citizen, top class sports
meant a lot of advantages. Work, studies, material advantages (remember
that you could wait for 8-10 years to buy a car, even a small GDR
Trabant) and a chance to travel. If you were a top athlete, you could
get away from the 24 month conscription etc. This is more important than
what most westerners think. Oh, how much an athlete could work and
sacrifize to slip through the needle's eye! One coach told me: "We were
the blacks of Europe. As football, basket, baseball and track was a road
to education and social improvement for many poor blacks in the US, it
was our way out of our confinement. That was probably the main factor".
*Then why were the women so much more succesful than the men? First, the
same thing was true in swimming and almost every other sport. I have
already mentioned what I think about this. Until the late 1960's,
women's T&F was "virgin land" (no pun or double meaning intended). Low
levels of training, more narrow base for recruiting etc. So it was
relatively easy to win and be succesful. Modern training methods (the
same as for the men or even harder, just look at Marita Koch's
training!), talent search and then medicine. They just exploded away.
On the men's side, it was another story. The doping had started in the
US around 1960 and with the big team sports + T&F well aware of this,
the GDR had no advantage whatsoever, but rather a deficit to catch up
on.
I cannot prove this scientifically (and neither can the vast majority of
you guys) but I will offer you a small example. I leave sprints and
400-800 and look instead at the Shot Put. In the US a traditionally
white athlete dominated event especially among the men.
After the season of 1989, the women's World Top 25-AT list had the
following look: 9 GDR women: 2. Ilona Slupianek 22.45 -80 / 7. Marianne
Adam 21.86 -79 / 10. Margitta Pufe 21.58 -78 / 11. Ines Müller 21.57 -88
/ 16. Heike Hartwig 21.31 -88 / 18. Liane Schmul 21.27 -82 / 19. Katrin
Neimke 21.21 -87 / 20. Helma Knorscheidt 21.19 -84 / 21. Heidi Krieger
21.10 -86
9 GDR women, not one US athlete. (The USSR had 6 names, and besides that
it was a mostly Eastern bloc spread, with only 2 West Germans as
exception).
And the men's statistics? The same year, after 1989, we could find among
the Top-25:
3 GDR athletes: 1. Ulf Timmermann 23.06 -88 / 5. Udo Beyer 22.64 - 86 /
25. Hartmut Briesenick 21.67 -73.
And 10 US athletes: 4. Randy Barnes 22.66 -89 / 6. John Brenner 22.52
-87 / 8. Brian Oldfield 22.19 -84 (also 22.86 for the TFA in -75) / 10.
George Woods 22.02i -74 / 10. Dave Laut 22.02 -82 / 15. Terry Albritton
21.85 -76 / 17. Al Feuerbach 21.82 -73 / 18. Randy Matson 21.78 -67 /
19. Mike Carter 21.76 -84 / 21. Augie Wolf 21.73 -84.
Why this difference? One reason is of course doping. But if the only
answer was that the GDR doped and the US did not, then why this
difference? The US male population must have been extreme hulks while
the women were of no athletic quality... Because even with that huge
doping advantage, the GDR men could not match the US men, while their
and many other countries' women were superior.
I have already mentioned the answer. First also the US doped, but much
more among the men. The GDR had a more scientific approach, even more
scientific than that of today. Because, hand on your hearts, in how many
US colleges do the women get equal or superior resources? (Hearts, not
lips, please). Or do any athletes get a coaching aimed at goals further
ahead than the upcoming conference (with as many starts as possible for
the school point tally...) or nationals?
*Finally. What happened after 1990? Well, most of the coaches got
sacked. The system was to a large extent torn down. The unified Germany
created (as already posted) the toughest and most far reaching anti
doping programme of any western country. As Christian Schenk said after
the WCh Decathlon in Stuttgart in 1993. (free quote) "I am very proud of
this result (a PB and a bronze). Because I have proven that I could set
a PR guaranteed clean". This from an Olympic Champion (Seoul 1988).
This has been a long post. I will not go on with this discussion after
this, but I have given you some of my thoughts. You are all free to your
own beliefs. But - if you have the chance, go to the former GDR. Visit
some of the places, including their main camp Kienbaum east of Berlin.
Talk to some people. Believe me - it will give you new and broader
perspectives.
I also wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Mats Åkerlind
